Foxes Can Be Heartless
by Isabelle Frost
Summary: When a fox named Rebekah gets taken from her home and released into the wild just before winter she is taken in by Verne and the gang and hibernates with them for the winter but when she wakes up in the spring she meets a racoon named RJ and her life gets turned upside down. (Rated T but I may change it to M later on) RJXOC
1. Jason

I yawned, arching my back as I stretched, paws out in front of me. A pair of hands lifted me into the air and into Jason's chest. He petted my head as he walked down the hall towards the kitchen, "How's my girl this morning?"

My tail fluffed out as I grinned at him, "Great!"

He scratched under my chin before he set me down on the tiled floor and went to the cupboard for food. I perched myself on one of the stools as I watched him grab some bacon and a frying pan. Jason glances at me over his shoulder, "You want some, girl?"

"Obviously." I chirp, jumping onto the table and sit next to the stove, using my paw to turn the knob and turn on the burner.

He grinned and walked over, placing the frying pan on the burner and opening the package of bacon. The smell of cooking bacon filled the kitchen within minutes and I smiled, nuzzling my face into his arm to get his attention.

"Need to use the bathroom, Rebekah?" He asks, petting my head with his elbow as not to get my hair in the frying pan. I nodded as he picked me up into his arms and carried me over to the door and set me down, "Don't wander off too far now. Alright?"

I scampered out the door and began to look around, the I got far enough into the bushes. After doing my business I hurried back towards Jason's yard, my collar clinking slightly as I walked.

Then all of a sudden a scream filled the air and I jumped, turning to see where the sound came from. A woman was pushing a baby stroller on the sidewalk outside of Jason's house. Her eyes were wide as she stared at me, then she raised a hand and pointed right at me, "A fox! It's going to eat me baby!"

A man that was standing just across the road from her ran over, hands raised. The woman that stood beside the lady with the stroller had her phone to her ear as she spoke very panicked into the mouthpiece.

My eyes widen as the man came barging at me. I dove out of the way and yelped when he grabbed a hold onto my tail and picked me up. I flailed, "Hey, that's not a handle, you dolt!"

He held me up into the air far enough that I couldn't whip around and bite him. I growled, kicking my hind legs so I could scare him into dropping me but the man held steady as a van showed up and the side door swung open. A man came out in a black suit and had a stick with a loop on the end of it in his hand. He looped the end around my neck and then the man that had a hold on my tail, let go.

I hit the ground and began to book it towards Jason's house but I was caught by the man that had the stick. He began to drag me towards the van and panic swept over me, "Jason! Help!"

My barking must have roused him because the front door swung open and Jason stepped out, "What's going on?" His eyes locked on my as the man shoved me into a cage inside of the van and closed the door with a bang.

"Jason! Help me! Jason!" I called, clawing at the cage door.

"What is the meaning of this?" I hear Jason snap from outside.

"This animal is a danger to this town. It can't stay here any longer." The man says as he climbs into the driver seat of the van and closes the door.

"You can't just kill her." Jason says angrily.

I feel my body tense, "Kill!? What!? Help me!"

"This fox isn't going to be killed, she's going to be released into the wild." The driver says, starting the van.

"Wild?! No! I like bacon! I like my house where I'm safe! No please! Jason get me out of here!" I cry, banging my body against the walls of the cage.

"She'd freaking out in there! You can't do this!" Jason says.

"Oh I think I just did." The driver says and then we start driving down the street towards who knows where.

"Rebekah!" Jason calls.

"Jason!" I scream and claw at the cage, "No!"


	2. Where am I?

I shook my head as I arose from my spot on the cold hard winter floor. My reddish fur was now coated in a small layer of frost which when I stood, immediately fell off and landed around my feet.

"Where am I?" My hoarse voice calls, as I have had no water for who knows how long. I don't even remember how I got here or how long I've been here. My head spins as I begin to panic, "Jason? Where are you? Jason!?"

"Jason? Who's Jason?" My body turns rigid and I get on all fours, turning to face the direction of the voice. A turtle raises his hands in defense, "Whoa, didn't mean to scare you."

"Who are you…?" I ask slowly, making sure he wasn't a danger.

"I'm Verne." He says, taking a step closer, "Who're you?"

"Rebekah." I say, standing up on my hind legs now, realising he wasn't a danger to me, "Rebekah Winchester."

"What are you doing all the way out here all by yourself, Rebekah?" Verne asks, "Don't foxes usually travel in packs?"

"You're thinking of wolves." I say with a small smile, "I was taken from my home…" My smile drops, "From Jason…"

"I'm so sorry." Verne says with a frown before smiling at me slightly, "Well…I can't let you stay out here all winter. You're welcome to come and stay with my family for the winter."

"Well that is really kind of you." I smile, "Thanks."

"Come on, it's this way." Vern says, gesturing for me to follow him.

I follow him through the thick brush and soon we arrive in a clearing that a group of animals was busily moving around in. I bend over slightly, making myself look smaller.

"Everyone?" Verne calls, gathering the other's attention for the moment.

"Who's that, Verne?" A male possum asks.

"Yeah, she's weird and stuff." The female possum adds.

"This is Rebekah. I found her in the woods on her own." Verne says, patting me on the back making me stumble forward into the middle of the group of animals. I regained my balance and I look around at them.

"She looks scared, eh?" A male porcupine asks.

"What's wrong with her?" The female porcupine asks. Three triplets stepped out from behind her as they watched me.

"She's pretty, can we keep her?" A squirrel asks, hugging me around my middle.

"The plan was for her to stay with us for the winter." Verne says.

"Will we have enough food?" A skunk asks, stepping out from behind the others.

"We should have enough." Verne says, "We have plenty right now."

"What're we doing, asking all of these questions?" The female porcupine asks, "She doesn't even know our names and we're already having at it."

"Well I'm Lou." The male porcupine says and puts a hand on the female's shoulder, "And this is my wife, Penny."

"Our kids, Spike, Quillo and Bucky." Penny says, touching the triplets' heads.

"I'm Hammy!" The squirrel says as he grins at me.

"Stella." The skunk says.

"I'm Heather and this is my dad, Ozzy." The female possum says, waving at me.

"It's nice to meet you." I smile slightly.

"Well, we better get in the log to get all cozied up for the winter." Verne says and immediately the others head toward a log stalked full of food.

I follow them and we all curl up in a pile of leaves and stay together.

"Night everyone." Verne says and everyone says their goodnight's before they all fall asleep after a while.

I look up at the sky through a crack in the log and then close my eyes, snuggling into the leaves, I miss you, Jason…

* * *

**_(A/N: Fast update! Please review!)_**


	3. What's Over the Hedge?

_*******Four Months Later*******_

My eyes slowly slid open to see a very green clearing and a pond. I stood up from my leafy enclosure and step outside with a stretch. I made my way over to a pond and sit at the water's edge, looking down at the pond which still had a small layer of frost along the edges as winter had just ended. The newly formed leaves gave a wonderfully sweet scent to the air.

I perched on a rock and held my tag in my hand close to my chest, if only he would had found me during the winter…But the again, I was in a log for the majority of the winter, waking up occasionally to eat or just get some air and think every few weeks. My eyes ease as I look at the golden colored tag **_Rebekah - If found, please call 555-2109._**

No one would find me. I don't even know where I am or where Jason is. It's not like the humans would just walk up to me, thinking I was someone's pet, even with a collar.

"Oh that's cold!" I hear Verne call from the log as he stumbles out, shaking snow off of himself that must have fallen into his shell, "That's cold! Uuugh. The one place that I didn't have a shell." After his little freak out he smiles and looks around himself, "Wow…Spring…That means there's only 274 days until winter!"

I giggle at his odd behavior as he turns to the log.

"Everybody wake up! Hibernation's over!" Verne calls walking into the log.

"Morning!" Hammy calls, jumping out of the log and standing at Verne's side.

"Hi Hammy." Verne says, touching Hammy's shoulder.

"I gotta go peepee." Hammy says suddenly and shoots off into the trees at the speed of a bullet.

Verne nods before he looks panicked. "Not in the lake we drink from!" Verne yells after Hammy before turning back to the log, "Alright everyone. It's spring! That means we've got to get to work!"

"Ahhh, finished." Hammy says as he appears next to Verne before doubling over, "No…wait…" He shoots back into the bushes.

"Come on everybody. Don't make me come in there." Verne says, hands on his hips.

"Y'all better listen. I've been holdin' something in all winter and I'm about to let it out." Stella's voice comes from inside the log. Immediately everyone runs from the log screaming.

"Thank you, Stella." Verne says

"Oh, I can clear a room. Verne. Come on, that much I can do." Stella says, walking out of the log, her black and white striped tail swaying behind her.

"Good morning everyone." Lou says, stretching, "Just a super-duper morning, huh?"

"Aw, jeepers." Penny says, bending over slightly, looking really tired.

"Whoa, not looking so good around the eyes, there , Hun." Lou says, touching her shoulder.

"Bucky and Quillo were up every three or four weeks and Spike kept poking me." Penny says, giving a jab with her finger for emphasis.

"Oh, well he is kinda pokey." Lou says.

"Yep, the sharpest of the bunch, there." Penny says, hands on her hips as she smiles.

"You know what? How about I take the day shift?" Lou responds.

"Oh Lou, that'd be just super." Penny says with a smile.

"Alright kids, you heard your mother. And now you listen to me." Lou says, arms out, "Shape up, there."

All three of the triplets run over and tackle their father to the ground, making me giggle.

"Where's the food? Is there any food left? I'm really hungry? So is there any food left in here, huh?" Hammy asks, hopping around the clearing.

"We ate all the food, Hammy, during the winter." Heather says, gesturing with her hands, "So we gotta go get some more now."

"Oh! Oh! Right! I buried some nuts in the woods and I know where they are and I'll be right back! Bye!" Hammy says before darting off into the woods.

"How'd you sleep, Rebekah?" Stella asks, walking over to me.

"Oh pretty good, you?" I respond, standing up on my hind legs.

"Alright I guess. Pretty hungry, now, though." She says, tapping her stomach.

"Yeah, me too." I nod and look over at the log.

A small piece of snow fell from a branch and hit Ozzie on the head which made him make a very dramatic noise and then fall over, pretending to be dead. The triplets began to laugh amongst each other and Heather must have noticed.

"Ha ha ha ha ha," Heather says nervously before turning to Ozzie, "Dad it was just snow."

"But it could have been a predator." Ozzie counters.

"Isn't playing dead, a little…weak?" Heather asks him.

"Heather," Ozzie starts as he stands up, "How many times must I say it? Playing possum is what we do. We die. So that we live."

Heather rolls her eyes and rubs the back of her head in embarrassment.

"That's what we have to find this year, don't cha know?" Penny asks Stella as she walks over to us, "A good fella."

"A good fella?" Stella questions rather irritably, "A good fella?"

"Aw jeepers, here we go." Penny says.

"Why does everyone think I need a man, huh?" Stella asks, "I look like a mess and smell like a swamp. So when you find a fella who's decent, good with kids and has no sense of smell, call me."

I giggle, "Yeah, I'll get right on that Stella."

"You have a man in your life, Rebekah?" Penny asks, looking past Stella, her eyes locked on me.

"Oh, no, I'm single at the moment." I smile slightly, "I'm good with being on my own."

"Oh, I think we could find you someone real soon." Stella says, placing her elbow on my shoulder and leaning on me, "You're all perky looking, right? What guy's not into that?"

"I don't know…?" I answer, rather confused.

"She's also a fox." Penny adds, catching Stella's attention, "And I don't mean that in the good sense of the word."

"What do you mean?" I ask, hands on my hips.

"What I mean is that you're a carnivore. A predator. I haven't seen many carnivore's around the woods before." Penny says, "You'll probably scare off a lot of the herbivore guys around here."

"First of all, I'm not a carnivore. I eat meat and plants, not just meat. And second of all I won't scare guys off, I mean...Come on, I'm not that scary. You guys weren't scared of me, right?" I ask.

They are silent as they exchange expressions.

"What? I scared you guys?" I ask, eyes widening.

"Well, I was afraid you would eat the triplets through the winter." Penny says sheepishly.

"Why didn't you say anything?" I ask, eyes easing.

"I thought you would eat me too..." Penny says quiety.

"Did the others feel that way?" My ears droop.

Stella hold up a hand, and pinches her fingers together, "A little bit."

I open my mouth to respond when Penny speaks up, "But Verne thought you were safe so we believed him."

I let out a sigh, wishing they hadn't felt the need to be afraid of me like the others did.

"Ahem?" Verne says, shaking a branch of berries in front of us.

"Ooh, look. Food!" Penny says, pointing at the berries, obviously destracted from our current conversation.

"I think you all know what this means." Verne says, shaking the berries slightly.

"Verne?" Hammy says, running into the clearing, looking frightened.

"Just a minute Hammy." Verne says before clearing his throat and continuing, "This means we were nine berries away from starvation."

Everyone, including me, cringes back and gasps.

"Sorry, that was a little intense." Verne says, passing Ozzie and Heather each a berry, "I meant really serious hunger pains."

Hammy shakes and then spits out, "Verne!?"

"Not finished, Hammy!" Verne continues as he passes berries to Lou, Penny and the triplets, "Morning Lou, Penny, kids. So what I want to tell you all is-"

"Verne!" Hammy yells out again before clamping his hands down over his own mouth.

"I'm not done Hammy, if you have to go again then just go!" Verne says, shrugging his arms in exasperation before passing Hammy, Stella the last berry, "Okay, so all I'm trying to say is that we came a little close. So this year we have to remember to fill the log."

"All the way to the top." Ozzie adds, raising his hand up high.

"Exactly." Verne says, "All the way to the top."

I giggle and lean back against a tree.

"Because what are we?" Verne asks.

"Foragers!" They all cheer.

"And what do we forage?" Verne asks.

"Food!" The others cheer again.

"Right!" Verne smiles.

I roll my eyes and pick a handful of berries off of the bush next to me, popping them in my mouth. I look over at Penny, "See? I eat fruit." I stuck out my tongue to show her the chewed up blackberries.

Penny's nose scrunches up as her eyes widen, "Yes, I see, dear."

"Super, Verne. Really super." Lou says with a smile.

"Okay Hammy." Verne says, turning to the squirrel.

"Huh?" Hammy asks.

"What is it?" Verne asks him.

"What is what?" Hammy asks, looking confused.

"What is it you wanna tell me?" Verne asks, wondering how he forgot his problem so quickly.

"Hm? Oh! Oh uh…" Hammy stomps his foot on the ground, wracking his brain, "What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What waaaas it? Mmmmmm….Wait! Right on the tip of my tongue. Oh yeah!" Hammy jumps up and down, "There's a weird thing over there that I've never seen before and it's really big and really scary. Follow me." Hammy takes off toward the trees.

Verne exchanges looks with the others and they begin walking towards where Hammy was headed.

I walked a few feet behind them, watching them as they followed the squirrel through the woods.

"Hammy, what weird thing?" Verne asks as he approaches Hammy. His eyes go up to the large object that Hammy was staring at, "Oh…that weird thing…"

I raised an eyebrow, crossing my arms as I talk to myself, "He was worked up over a hedge?"

They turn to look from one direction to the other but it seems to just go on and on forever. Hammy books it to the left, "It never ends!" Then he shoots in the opposite direction, passing us before he comes back to Verne, "It never ends that way, too."

They began to mumble as they walked closer to the hedge.

Heather reaches out her hand, "What is this thing?"

Just before she can touch it, Ozzie pulls her back, "Heather no!"

"I'm scared…" Bucky says.

"Me too, Mama…" Quillo adds.

"Shh, shh, it's okay, it's just a…" Penny says but trails off and turns to Lou, "What is this thing, Lou?"

"Uh…eh…uh It's a…" Lou turns to Verne, "Verne?"

"Well it's uh…it's obviously uh…some kind of bush." Verne says, looking up at the hedge.

"I would be a lot less afraid of it if I at least knew what it was called." Penny says.

"Let's call it 'Steve'!" Hammy grins, hopping up and down.

"Steve?" Verne asks.

"It's a pretty name." Hammy says, looking up at the hedge.

"Steve sounds nice." Heather says, putting in her two cents.

"Yeah, I'm a lot less afraid of Steve." Penny says.

"Oh great and powerful, Steve!" Ozzie says, getting onto his knees, "What do you want?"

"Oh brother." I roll my eyes and leaning against a tree.

"I-I don't think it can speak." Verne says, getting Ozzie to stand up.

"I heard that, young man!" A female voice comes from the other side of the hedge.

Everyone screams and Ozzie doubles over, playing dead.

"You get over here right now." The woman says.

"Okay…" Hammy says sadly, walking towards the hedge.

"Hammy, get back here." Verne says, pulling Hammy back to his side.

"I think it came from the other side of Steve." Verne says, "I mean the bush. I mean…geez!" He makes his hands into fists before letting out a sigh, "Look there's only one way we're going to find out what this is all about. I'm gonna go check it out."

Verne turns to the hedge and begins walking with his back to the others while they followed him but Hammy gets too close and makes Verne screamed, the others scream as well.

Verne turned to them, "Aye-yai-yai…"

When he turns back to the hedge he trips and falls into the hedge, letting out a gasp. The others began to panic.

"Steve ate Verne!" Ozzie cries.

"Alright Steve." Stella says, walking over to the hedge and turning her butt towards it, "You brought this on yourself."

"Stella don't!" Verne cries, "I'm not eaten! I just tripped! I'm gonna go over there…just….nobody move."

I heard rustling behind me while the others were occupied and turned to see a flash of something climb up the tree I was leaning against. I look back to the others before jumping onto the trunk of the tree and digging my claws into the bark, clawing my way up the tree. When I got about half way up I saw a racoon sitting on the branch with a blue golf bag over his shoulder. I blinked, what was he doing up here with that? I open my mouth to say something when Verne lets out a scream, shooting back through the hedge like a rocket.

"Verne's back." Hammy says.

"Verne!" The others call, running over to where Vern stood.

Ozzie started, "What was over there-"

"Freaky pink primates!" Verne yells, cutting him off, "They must have come while we were hibernating! And they…It was awful! They had wheels on their feet and they had these sticks and they were whacking me with these sticks like it was some sick game!"

The racoon hopped onto a different branch, closer to my little group of friends that I had come to know.

"You should have died!" Ozzie says, "You should have just laid down and died."

"Dad." Heather snaps, shaking her head.

"That's not the worst part!" Verne adds, "Half the forest is gone! The oak trees, the berry bushes…They're just…th-they're just…gone…"

"Jeepers…" Penny gasps.

"What'll we go for food?" Stella asks, looking at the hedge.

"I don't know…" Verne says before adding, "But here's what I do know. We will be fine as long as no one goes over Steve again." He points back at the hedge.

"It's called a hedge, my amphibious friend."

The voice startled me, almost making me topple off of the branch until I realised the voice came from the racoon on the branch down lower on the tree.

"It is the gateway to the good life." The racoon grins, gesturing behind him.

"Uh…I'm a reptile actually. But you know, it's a common mistake." Vern says gesturing around him before pointing at the racoon, "And uh…you are?"

"Oh! Where are my manners!" The racoon says, walking down a branch and it bends as he walks closer to the end and it curls towards the ground. He hops off and walks over to the other, "I'm RJ. Now please don't think I'm prying but I couldn't help overhearing and I think I can shed a little light on what this whole 'hedge' situation is about." RJ begins whipping things out of his golf bag as he looks for something and the others start picking it up, fascinated with the items.

"RJ…" I say to myself quietly as I lay down on the branch I was perched on, one arm under my chin while the other dangled off the side of the branch, my legs straddling the branch while my tail swung aimlessly behind me.

"You see…" RJ begins, whipping out a map from his bag and opening it, "What once was mere wilderness is now 524 acres of man-made, manicured, air conditioned paradise. Except for that itty-bitty speck." RJ points to the one point on the map that still had green on it, "You are here."

Everyone gasps, making my ears prick up.

"No, no, that's a good thing! You're hibernators, right?" RJ asks, "You gather up a bunch of food? Store it away for the winter?"

"Uh huh!" Hammy chirps pointing to the log, "We fill the log!"

"Hammy!" Verne snaps.

"Really?" RJ asks, running over to the log and looking inside, "This log? This cave-like log?"

"All the way to the top." Ozzie adds.

"Ozzie!" Verne snaps, glaring at him.

"Let me ask you…" RJ starts, pulling out a tape measure and passing one end to Hammy as he measures the log, "How long does it take, you know, to fill the log?"

"274 days." Heather says blandly.

"Oooh!" RJ says, poking his head out of the other side of the log, "Ever done it in a week?"

"That's impossible." Verne scoffs.

I giggle, kicking my legs back and forth as I watch them in amusement.

"Not if we work together!" RJ says, "You see, you've got the food gathering skills, I've got the knowhow and they have the food!" RJ gestures to the hedge.

"How much food?" Heather asks enthusiastically.

"Loads of food! Heaps of food!" RJ responds with an equal amount of enthusiasm, "Food out the wazoo!"

"Well, you know, whatever kind of food comes out of a wazoo, I-I really don't think we're interested in eating it." Verne says, gathering up RJ's things and shoving them back into RJ's arms.

I huff from my spot in the tree, "Killjoy…"

"I don't know, the guy's making a lot of sense to me. I think we should listen." Lou says.

"Yeah, I'm okay with wazoo food, there." Penny adds, walking up to Vern with pink sunglasses on.

"No you're not." Verne says, taking her sunglasses away, "The tail is tingling."

Immediately everyone hands back RJ's things to Vern.

"Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on." RJ says, confused, holding up his hands, "The what is what?"

I roll my eyes, "This thing again."

"When something doesn't feet right my tail tingles." Verne says, passing RJ the remainder of his things., "And let me tell you something. Everything you've said so far is driving my tail crazy."

"Listen. Vern, right?" RJ asks, putting his things in his bag, "This isn't something you need to be afraid of."

"Well I am." Verne says, "And for good reason." Vern turns to show him a tire mark across his shell, "This is not a birth mark."

RJ pulls an electric toothbrush from his bag and cleans the mark off of Verne's shell.

"Ah, that's because you went over there without a guide, Verne." RJ says.

"Whatever. Thanks for stopping by. We're not interested." Verne says, ushering him away.

"Not interested in the most delicious food you have ever tasted?" RJ gapes at him. I could feel my mouth watering. I had missed the foods that Jason would give me. Berries and bark just couldn't compare to chips and cookies.

"No!" Verne snaps.

"Are you insane!?" I yell from my tree in shock, turning everyone's attention to me. I immediately recoil, "Oops."

"Foxy is right!" RJ says, gesturing to me, "How could you not-"

"Not interested." Verne says again, pointing in RJ's face.

"Okay. I get it. I understand." RJ says, baking up toward his bag, "This is something you're just not…" RJ pulls a bag of chips from his bag, "Open to." Then he opens the bag and there is a puff of orange dust from the bag, engulfing the clearing in the tasty scent of the chips.

"What is that!?" Hammy asks, his mouth watering.

"That my friends is a magical combination of corn flour, dehydrated cheese salads, BHA, BHT and good old MSG. A.k.a. The chip. Nacho cheese flavored." RJ says, passing out the chips.

I smirk, chin resting on my crossed arms in front of me.

RJ looks up at me, shaking the bag, "Want one, Foxy?"

"I'm good." I say, giggling slightly as I watch the others, "I think the others would like to have some them more than I do."

"Yeah, Verne! Those were good!" Stella says, licking her fingers.

"It's all good! RJ says, tossing more chips to the others, "And we're going over there! Tonight!"

I saw the very unimpressed look on Verne's face as he walks into the log and disappears. While the others are still stuffing their faces with chips I slide down from my branch and land on my feet on the grass.

RJ turns to me, his bag over his shoulder, "So what's your name, Foxy?"

"Rebekah." I say with a smug smile, "You seem to know quite a bit about what's on the other side of the hedge."

"Well yeah," RJ says with a shrug, "I get all of my food from them."

"The humans?" I ask in amusement, "You steal from them?"

"I guess so but…" RJ sends me an odd look, "I never said they were called humans."

I smirk, "Smart racoon. That's a good trait." I walk towards the pond and RJ follows behind me.

"You know about humans?" RJ asks.

"I don't just know about them. I lived with them." I say, looking back at him as I sit on a rock.

"Lived with them?" RJ asks.

I tilted my head up and revealed my collar with the golden colored tags which had been consealed under my fur.

"You're a pet?" RJ's eyes widen.

"Was. I _**was**_ a pet. But yeah, free food every day. A warm bed." I say, "It's kinda like the human was my family…"

"What, you don't have a family?" RJ asks.

"Well I do now." I say, gesturing around me, "Vern, Stella, Heather, Ozzie, Lou, Penny, Quilla, Spike, Bucky, they're all my family now."

"Oh…" RJ says, a look in his eyes.

"What, do you not have a family or something?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm a lone wolf. I travel alone. No family." RJ says with a shrug.

"But you're not a wolf." I say, grabbing his attention.

"I know but it's easier to travel by myself. No one to hold me back." RJ says, "It's easier."

I slowly nod, "Yeah I guess I get what you're saying." RJ gives me a smug look making me roll my eyes, walking backwards towards the log, "Well I'm going to go back to the log. Got things to do before tonight, you know?"

"I could give you a hand?" RJ offers.

I swiftly turn back to him and give him a nervous smile, "Thanks but no thanks. I've got it."

"Let me know if you change your mind." RJ says with a grin.

"Yeah, sure." I say, turning back to the log and began walking with a huff, _I don't know what kind of angle this guy was trying to pull but it wasn't going to work on me._

* * *

_**(A/N: Another update? Already? Why yes it is! Please review!)**_


	4. Close Call with a Broom

I walk behind RJ as he led the others through the hedge and into a backyard. He stood at one of the power box waved his tail in front of the movement censor, "Welcome….to suburbia."

The lights came on in different colors in the backyard and the others gasped.

RJ flicks a switch and the water sprinklers come on, the lights backing the water seem to be different colors. The others begin to explore the backyard, entranced by the many wonders of human life.

"How's that tail, Verne?" RJ asks, walking over to him with a smug look.

"Listen, if anyone in this family gets hurt, I am holding you fully responsible." Verne says, pointing in RJ's face.

"They're having a good time." RJ says, gesturing out in front of him before he begins to walk away from Verne, "I'll take responsibility for that."

I, myself, was busy looking in the reflection of the pool. Jason used to have one of these. We used to go swimming in the summer, once I had finished shedding.

"How do you like it over here, Rebekah?" RJ asks, walking up behind me.

I scoff and look over at him, "It takes a little more than some lights and water to make me go all googly eyed."

"Hm…" RJ says, a look of thought on his face, "You seem to be the type who doesn't get impressed easily."

I roll my eyes and stand up on my hind legs, "Obviously."

RJ glances over at the others before he turns back to me, "You hungry?"

"Uh…yeah sort of." I say with a shrug.

RJ immediately smiles and grabs my paw in his. "Hey everybody, this way to the food!" RJ says as he pulls me across the pool, leaping from one pool toy to another but when we get to the other side I snatch my hand back. Soon the others are right behind us.

When we all make it to the road we pass an SUV and Hammy gapes, "Oooooh, what is that?"

"That is an SUV. Humans ride around in these because they are slowly losing their ability to walk." RJ says.

"Jeepers, it's so big." Penny gasps.

"How many humans fit in there?" Lou asks as we pass it.

RJ turns to them, "Usually…one."

"Ooooh." Lou says.

"Hi! This is Gladys Sharp." A woman chirps as she steps out of a house talking on her phone, "Your president of the home owners association?"

We all dive into the bushes and stare up at her.

"Right!" The woman says again as she begins walking towards her SUV.

"Jeepers…" Penny says quietly.

"What is that?" Hammy adds.

"Easy, easy, don't worry." RJ says, calming them down, "That's just a human being. And it is just as scared of us as we are of them. Now if a human does happen to see you, just lay down, roll over, and give your privates a good licking. They love it."

I roll my eyes but kept my mouth shut.

"The home owner's charter which you signed," Gladys starts, grabbing a box from her SUV and returning to the house, "The grass is supposed to be two inches and a quarter. According to my measuring stick, your lawn is two point five." She closes the door behind her and disappears inside the house.

"Could we just get the food and go?" Verne says irritably, "Really? Do they have it or not?"

"Didn't you see it?" RJ asks, nodding behind him, his arms crossed, "It was in the box. They've always got food in them. We eat to live, and these guys live to eat. Let me show you what I'm talking about."

We dive into the bushes and then climb up to one of the windows.

RJ gestures inside at a man eating, "The human mouth is called a 'pie hole'."

We go down to one of the screen doors and RJ points to a man on the couch.

"The human is called a 'couch potato'." He says before he points at a woman talking on a cell phone, "That is a device that they use to summon food."

After a few minutes the doorbell rang, making one of the humans stand up and rush to the door.

"That is one of the many voices of food." RJ says before we circle the house to the front door.

When we get to the front door we see a pizza delivery man pass the man his pizza.

"That is the portal for the passage of food." RJ continues.

The pizza delivery guy jumps on his scooter and drives away.

"That is one of the many vehicles for the transportation of food." RJ adds, "Human's bring the food."

An eighteen wheeler drives by.

"They ship the food."

A vehicle in the shape of a taco drove by.

"They drive the food."

An ice cream truck drives by with people in ice cream costumes on the front.

"They wear the food!" RJ says.

He pulls me over to the fence that separated this yard from the once next door. The others followed us as we stared over the side of the fence.

RJ points to the BBQ next door, "That gets the food hot."

Next he points to a cooler.

"That keeps the food cold."

He points at a piñata.

"That…" RJ pauses for a moment and then puts a hand on his chin, "I'm not sure what that is…"

A kid runs over and whacks it with a stick, making candy shower out of it.

"What do you know!" RJ says, throwing his arms up, "Food!"

We climb up on top of a greenhouse and RJ points inside of a house at a family sitting down for supper.

"That is the alter where they worship food." RJ says before pulling us off the greenhouse and down to a screen door.

Inside a TV was going, featuring a commercial on TUMS.

"That's what they eat when they've eaten too much food." RJ says before pointing to the woman that was watching the TV as she ran on a treadmill, "That's what gets rid of the guilt so they can eat more food!"

We keep watching the TV that shows food commercial after food commercial.

"Food, food, food, food, food!" RJ says before turning to the others, "So you think they have enough?" Everyone nods. "Well they don't! With humans, enough is never enough!"

The others gasp as they follow RJ around the side of the house toward the back yard. He jumps up on top of three trash cans.

He turns to the others, "And do you know what they do with the stuff they don't eat? They put them in gleaming silver cans, just for us." Then RJ kicks the cans over and nods at the others, "Dig in."

They all dart for the trash and beginning digging through it for something to eat.

RJ jumps down and walks over to me as I remain in my spot behind the trash, "Impressed yet, sweetheart?"

"By garbage?" I ask with a smirk, "Not really."

RJ has a sly look on his face, "Hm…you really are a hard one to please." RJ glances at Verne, "So, what do you think? Was I right, or was I right?" RJ asks, turning to the others and they all start grinning and cheering, "And these things are just the scraps! Wait until you see what comes in the boxes and the packages and the cans! I'm telling you, folks, stick with me and in one week we will gather enough food to…to…to...to feed a bear!"

Everyone turns to him in fright.

"Just a figure of speech." RJ says quickly.

_**Beep Beep**_

The shrill sound comes from behind us and we all turn to see where the noise was coming from.

A Persian cat jumped out a cat door and stared at us in shock, "Halt! Intruders! Intruders! Get out all of you!"

Then the front door opens to reveal Gladys, the human from earlier, "What is it baby? Ah!" She screams when she sees us.

RJ and I turn to see the others laying on their backs.

"What are you doing?!" RJ asks.

Lou blinks, "Well you said we should lick our-"

"No!" RJ cuts him off, "Forget that! Run!"

We all begin booking it toward the hedge, screams coming from the others as Gladys begins racing after us, swinging a broom like a weapon.

"Get out of here!" Gladys yells, smashing the broom down, trying to hit the others, "Shoo! Get out of here!"

I yelp as she whacks me with the broom, my legs sliding out from under me as I hit the ground. My head throbs as the blurry images of the others disappear into the hedge.

Gladys runs over to see what she hit and looks down at me, her shadow looming over at me as I desperately try to stand up but my limbs wouldn't respond. "Oh god…did I kill it…?" I hear her voice above me.

When I finally muster the strength to stand up I whimper, a pain shooting up my left hind leg.

I feel her shadow over top of me and when I look out in front of me she had her broom raised over her head, "Better put it out of its misery…"

I panic and struggle to run away, stumbling with every step. Then a paw grabbed mine and I was hauled toward the hedge. The sound of the broom hitting the ground just a foot behind me. When we reached the hedge as stumbled through, sprawling out on the green grass on the other side.

My leg stung but I managed to get up and look over at RJ as he panted at my side. I blinked, "You…saved me?"

"I saw you from my tree." RJ says, nodding to the tree to our right.

"Well…thanks…I guess." I say with a shrug.

"No problem." He says with a wave of his hand and then he trots over to the base of the tree, "Goodnight."

"Wait." I say, hands on my hips.

"Hm?" RJ asks, turning to me.

"You're going to spend the night in the tree all alone?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"That was the idea." RJ says, sending me a similar look before jumping onto the trunk and clawing his way up the base to a sturdy branch near the top.

My gaze goes from the tree to the log that I usually slept in. Then I slowly hobbled over to the tree and climbed my way up to the branch RJ was perched on. I jumped onto the branch and it shook slightly as I plopped myself down.

"What're you doing?" RJ asks, leaning against the trunk on the tree.

I lay down on my stomach on the branch and smile at him, "Thought you could use some company."

RJ gave me a weird look, "You did?"

"Plus Verne seems a bit peeved at you and I don't want to hear him jabbering on about it all night." I say with a chuckle.

RJ gives a small laugh as well and lays back, closing his eyes, "Night, Rebekah."

"Night RJ…" I say, closing my eyes and sighing as the warm night air lulled me to sleep.

* * *

_**(A/N: Rebekah is slowly warming up to RJ. So what do you think? Please review)**_


	5. Cookies and Caffine

RJ's screaming woke me up and I looked at him, panicked, "Whoa, dude. Calm down."

RJ looks shaken up as he looks himself over, "O-Okay…four p-paws…f-fur…still alive…still alive." He clutches his chest with both hands.

"Bad dream?" I ask, propping myself up on my elbows.

"You could say that." RJ says, chuckling nervously.

The sound of squeaking wheels and girls talking gets our attention. We both look over the hedge and see two girl scouts pulling along a red wagon full of cookies.

RJ immediately roots though his bag and pulls out some paper that had magazine clippings all over it.

"What's that?" I ask in confusion.

He looks over at Verne and the others as they are gathering bark and leaves and then jumps out of the tree to talk to them.

"Or just ignore my question and leave me in a tree…" I say with a roll of my eyes, carefully sliding down the branch and landing on the grass, cringing under the weight I put on my leg. I almost toppled over but managed my footing and walked over to the others.

"Okay…" Verne says, taking a bite of bark, "This is great. Granted it takes some time to chew…But that," He chews some more before swallowing, "that was very satisfying. And by the way, lots of fiber in there. Lots."

"I gotta admit." RJ says, walking over to Verne, "That does look tasty."

Verne spits out a mouthful of bark and stares at RJ in shock, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to help with your…foraging…thing." RJ says with a grin.

Verne just glares at him.

"Verne, look, you said a word yesterday. About your little gang here. Starts with an 'f'. Do you remember what it was?" RJ asks.

"Family?" Verne says as if RJ was stupid.

"Right, right, that!" RJ says, tapping his chest, "You know, that got me right here. You see, Verne, I used to have all that, my own place, surrounded by loved ones, a universal remote, but then all that went away with..." RJ trails off before giving Verne puppy dog eyes, "…the weed hacker incident…" RJ then bent over and began to sob into his hands.

I stare at him in shock, "What a load of sh-"

"Oh, come here!" Hammy cries, running over and hugging RJ around his middle. "Yeah, that feels good, doesn't it?"

RJ pats Hammy's back and stares over at Verne, bottom lip quivering.

"Oh brother." Verne says with a roll of his eyes.

"Jeepers, Verne." Penny says, walking over to him.

"We could always use the extra hand around here, you know." Lou adds.

"The weed hacker, Verne! The weed hacker!" Hammy says, staring at Verne in sympathy.

RJ sticks out his bottom lip and nods before he slowly pushes Hammy away, "Okay, not your problem. I'll just go…" RJ begins walking away towards the hedge. Hammy sends Verne a look of astonishment.

Verne rolls his eyes.

"This is me…going." RJ says, "It was nice getting to know you all…"

I look around to see everyone's sad faces, they can't possibly be buying this, can they?

"I'm sure I'll see you around the forest…" RJ says, sadly.

"Oh…" Hammy whimpers.

"Alright." Verne says with an annoyed sigh, "Hey, RJ?"

RJ stops in his tracks.

**_Don't give him what he wants._ **I taunt in my head.

"You can…you can stay." Verne says.

RJ bolts back immediately and body slams into Verne, picking up the turtle into his arms, "Woo hoo!"

"Ah!" Verne cries as RJ spins him in his arms.

"Come here you big lug!" RJ grins.

"No!" Verne responds urgently.

"I knew under this hard crusty exterior there was a soft nougat-y center in there!" RJ says, noogie-ing Verne's head, making him recoil into his shell, "You mind if I call you 'Uncle Verne'?"

Verne pokes his head out of his shell and glares at RJ, "With every bone in my body."

"Great. Hey can I work with Hammy?" RJ says, walking past Verne and over towards Hammy.

I watch them as they walk away towards the hedge together and am half tempted to follow them but decide otherwise and just walk/stumble over to the log and climb on top of it, my legs dangling off the side as I sit there.

"Got a pretty bad limp there, don't cha?" Penny asks, walking over to me.

"Oh, yeah." I say, lifting up my leg and turning it a bit, "The human messed my leg up last night when she was swinging that broom around."

"Jeepers!" Her eyes widen at my leg, "It's swelling up a bit, huh?"

"Just a little. It's better than it was last night." My leg lowers back down and I sigh, "If RJ hadn't saved me it would have been a lot worse than this."

"RJ saved ya?" Lou asks, jumping in on the conversation.

"Yeah." I say with a small smile, "He pulled me out of the way just before the human crushed me with that broom."

"Good golly." Lou says.

"You're lucky he was there." Penny adds.

"Yeah, I guess I was." My smile grows slightly and I look back down at my leg before looking at Penny, "You think you could get me something to put on my leg to take down the swelling?"

Penny nods, "I'll be right back, little missy. Don't you worry about a thing."

When she disappears into the bushes Lou looks at my leg, "You know how bad it is?"

"Just a sprain, I'd say." My ears go up as I think about it, "I wouldn't be able to walk on it if it was broken."

"So you can walk on it?" Lou asks, gently lifting my leg up so he could take a closer look at it.

"Yeah, just stings a bit." I say, "It'll feel better once the swelling goes down."

Penny runs over to me from the bushes and hands me a ball of snow which was wrapped in a large leaf and tied with a vine at the top, "I found you some snow. Wasn't much left, I tell ya."

I place the snow on my leg and let out a sigh at the cool feeling, "Thank you, Penny."

"No problem, dear." Penny says, tapping my shoulder reassuringly.

I jump when I hear screaming from the other side of the hedge.

Then I hear yelling, "Go! Go! Go! Go!"

RJ and Hammy shoot through the fence with the red wagon which was filled to the top with cookies and soda cans.

Everyone stares at the wagon as it comes o a stop by the log and RJ grins at everyone, "I bring you a bounty of food."

"Is it good?" Lou asks, walking a bit closer.

"You tell me." RJ says, tossing Lou a cookie.

As soon as Lou takes a bite his eyes widen, "By golly, that's good!"

Soon everyone is swarming the red wagon like crazy.

"Mmhm, that's right! Don't push." RJ says, passing the cookies out to everyone, "Plenty for everyone."

"I want some of them, there." Penny says, pointing at the cookies.

"Got a box right over here for you, Penny." RJ says, passing her a red box of cookies.

"Oh, Jeepers, that is good." Penny says, taking the box, "Kids, dig in, anything that tastes this good, has to be good for you." The triplets begin stuffing their faces with cookies.

RJ hops over and passes me a box of chocolate chip cookies, "For the lady."

I take them from him and open the box, "Thanks." I take one out and pop a cookie into my mouth, "I've really missed these…"

RJ sends me a grin, "You are very welcome." Then he picks up a soda from the wagon and passes it to me, "Want one of these?"

My smile widens and I take that from him as well, setting it at my side, "Thanks. You know, for a guy that's full of himself, you do have your moments."

He nods, "Of course I do."

I roll my eyes and I open my mouth to respond when I hear Penny let out an excited jitter.

"Hold that thought." RJ says before turning back to the others. "You feel that buzz in the back of your skull?"

"Yeah!" Penny says, grinning.

"That's called a sugar rush." RJ says as the triplets begin to get jumpy, "That's what keeps the humans going. That's why they don't hibernate." RJ pops oven a can and hands it to Spike, "Top that off with a little of this…and what usually takes you all summer is only going to take us a week!"

The triplets gulp it down immediately and begin bouncing off the walls.

Hammy pops the seal on one of the sodas and begins to lift it to his mouth. RJ runs over and snatches the can from Hammy, "Whoa, hold on there, Ham-squad. The last thing you need is caffeine."

RJ walks away with the can, leaving a very disappointed Hammy behind him.

"That's right, come on." RJ says, passing the can to Lou, "Dig in. Cause this, my friends, is just the beginning!"

"What?" Verne says in shock and horror.

* * *

_**(A/N: I'm just moving right along with this story. So many ideas are pumping in my head so there'll be a new update pretty soon!)**_


	6. Exterminators and Food Gone Missing

Day after day, RJ and the others began bringing in lots of new things like lunchboxes, glasses, CD players, skateboards, not to mention all of the video games they got.

I remember the first day RJ got the video game. The triplets loved it and RJ seemed to enjoy showing them how to play it.

They also got yo-yos, TVs, headphones, car seats, towels, cards, hats, lawn ornaments, cameras and printers, not to mention the food! Oh the food! The log was full, food bulging out the sides. The last few missions or so I could help out with because my leg had healed.

All it took was a couple of days or so and it already felt like RJ was a part of our little family.

I was currently sitting on the log, munching on a cookie when RJ jumped down from his tree. He grinned, "It's show time."

I nod and jump up, looking over at the others, "Come on guys."

We all ran over to the hedge and out the other side, into a yard. We all ran up to the road and stopped, hiding in a bush while RJ jumps into an open mailbox.

RJ looks down at Ozzie, "It's your time to shine, my friend. Time to play possum."

Ozzie nodded and looked up at the van as it approached us. Then he bolted out into the middle of the road and the van's breaks squealed as it tried to come to a stop. Ozzie smashed his hands on the front of the van and then jumped back and lay down, grunting as if he had actually been hit.

The driver of the van climbed out and soon did all the passengers which consisted of three boys and their mother.

"Whoa, Mom, you hit a possum!" One of the little boys said as the three of them gather around Ozzie.

"Oh my goodness…" Their mother says, gasping.

"Do you think it's dead?" One of the other boys ask.

"Wow…" The other says.

"Touch it." One taunts.

"Can I poke him?" The blond asks.

"No!" His mother snaps before her eyes ease, "That poor little creature…"

RJ pops his head out of the mailbox and nodded toward to van. We all swarmed from the bush and bolted toward the van, climbing up the back so we could get the bungee cords off of the cooler so we could take it.

"Debbie. I don't remember you signing a permit for a gathering. Group of people of more than one who wish to get-Ah!"

I jump and look up to see Gladys staring down at Ozzie in disgust.

"Timmy, uh…get the shovel from the car." The mother says and the smallest boy turns to the van.

I see Ozzie twitch because he knows he has to do something.

RJ looks at him anxiously and mouths the word, 'Stall!' repeatedly.

"Uh, lights fading!" Ozzie cries, rolling over, "Limbs growing cold…"

I manage to get one of the bungee cords up.

"Faster!" RJ says in a hushed whisper.

"I would be a lot faster if I had opposable thumbs!" I snap back.

"I see a tunnel! Mother is that you, beckoning me into the light?" Ozzie says as he gets on his knees, "Must move towards the light…"

Penny gets another one undone.

"I'm telling you, you went too far this time." Verne says, running over to the van, "Let's just get out of here and leave this."

I undo the last bungee cord, "Got it."

The others push it off the side of the van's roof and it lands on top of Verne.

"Nice catch Verne." RJ says with a smile as he jumps off the roof. He turns and holds out his arms. I jump down and he catches me, placing me on the ground before we turn to the cooler.

"Yes, yes, sweet music! I'm going home!" I hear Ozzie call from the front of the van, "Goodbye cruel world!" He pauses for a moment and then he speaks, "Oh! Oooh! Rosebud…" Then he collapses with a grunt.

"Now can I poke him?" A kid asks.

"No!" His mother snaps again.

"See? This I exactly why I called the exterminator. To kill them before they get hurt like this." Gladys says.

My eyes widen in horror as I turn to face them, "Exterminator…?"

"Everybody get out of here right now!" Verne says, his voice muffled from under the cooler.

"Right! Kids, grab those handles." RJ says, picking up one end of the cooler before turning to me, "C'mon, Dollface, we need all the help we can get."

"Yeah Rebekah, grab that corner, there." Lou says, nodding to his left.

I look over at Gladys before turning back to RJ and the others. I run over to help them and pick up a corner, "Let's get this on the other side of the hedge."

As we run with it the end of the cooler hits the pavement and we trip, the cooler's contents going everywhere.

I groan and get up, looking around as a van begins to pull up with the word 'Verminator' on the side. It comes to a stop as we huddle behind the cooler for safety. RJ puts an arm over my shoulders and ushers me down, "Get low and stay quiet..."

A man in an orange jumpsuit comes out of the van with a briefcase.

"I believe someone phoned about an animal problem." The man says, "The solution is standing before you."

I blinked at the man that posed to be a possible threat.

"Dwayne Lafondon," He says, pulling up his belt, "is here."

"Where have you been?" Gladys says, clearly annoyed, "I am holding a welcome to the neighborhood party tomorrow and so far Debbie's car has killed more animals than you have!"

"Stand down, sister." Dwayne says, putting a hand up in Gladys's face before walking over and bending down next to Ozzie, "I personally guarantee that there will not be a living thing at this party. The verminator is on the job."

I glance over to see RJ and the others shoving the various food back inside of the blue cooler.

"Leave it! Leave it!" Verne whispers harshly at us.

"Well what do we have here?" Dwayne says, drawing my attention back to him as he looks down at Ozzie. He inhales deeply before letting out a sigh, "Didelphis marsupialis virginiananis, approximately ten pounds…" Dwayne pulls on a black rubber glove and snaps the rim of it against his skin, "Male."

Ozzie's eyes shoot open at the loud snapping sound.

"I think he's dead." Gladys says.

"Really? Do you in fact have an associate's degree from Verm-Tech?" Dwayne asks her before he shakes his head and points at Ozzie, "I think he just wants you to think he's dead!"

RJ's paw grabs my arm and I turn to him as he pulls me back towards the hedge as the others carry the cooler, "Come on, move it, move it, move it…" Just before we go into the hedge RJ stops, making me bump into him. Then he turns and looks at Ozzie, touching his forearm, his shoulder, both of his eyes, his nose, his eye and then his nose. That was the signal to tell Ozzie he could give up the act.

Ozzie gave a wink to show that he saw.

"Oh…I hope it's not in any pain…" Gladys says.

Then just as Dwayne was about to grab him, Ozzie jumped up on his hind legs and made a break for it towards the hedge.

"Kill it! Kill it!" Gladys screams.

"Thank you all for coming! You've been a great audience!" Ozzie calls as he runs, Dwayne chasing after him.

We all take off inside the hedge and Ozzie is soon at our side, panting like crazy.

Everyone immediately swarms around Ozzie and begin congratulating him on a wonderful performance.

"That was just super!" Penny grins.

"It was beyond super!" RJ gushes, "It was riveting, man! You were awesome!"

Everyone cheers in agreement.

"Dad, I uh…I just gotta say that uh…" Heather starts, "…that was pretty good."

"Props for the Oz-man!" Spike says, raising his arm and making the 'rock on' hand motion.

"Oz-man!" The others cheer.

"But let's not forget our brilliant leadership, RJ." Ozzie says.

My eyes trail back to the hedge where I see a very sad Verne as he watches from afar. My attention goes from him back to everyone else.

Hammy hugs RJ around the stomach making RJ look slightly uncomfortable.

"Hey, RJ, come this way." Heather starts, pointing towards the trees, "We wanna show you something."

I smile when I remember what a few of us had done while the others were off doing the food heists. I shrug, "Yeah, c'mon dude. You gotta check this out."

"Yeah, sure." RJ says, following us as we lead him into the woods.

As we walk my hands go behind my back, locking my fingers together.

"Can you give me a hint as to what it is?" RJ asks, nudging me with his elbow.

"No." I respond.

"Not even a little one?" RJ pleads.

"Nope. It's like right here, I swear you have the shortest amount of patience in the world." I chuckle.

"Over here, this way." Heather says, running up ahead.

"This is gonna be sweet!" Quillo says as the triplets run up next to Heather.

RJ's gaze goes from me to our surroundings, his face drops as he looks around in awe.

"Check it out." Stella says, "Your new home."

It was a variety of things that we had collected during the raids over the hedge. It was all put together to look like a living room, complete with a working TV and a couple of seats.

"And look!" Hammy says, grabbing RJ's attention as he pats a car seat, "We got a seat for you right here."

"That's for me…?" RJ asks, his eyes easing.

"It's all yours." I say, gesturing around us.

"Yeah, is this…anything like what you had, RJ?" Lou asks.

"This isn't anything like what I had, Lou." RJ says, and for once I hear a ring of truth in his voice.

"Here," Hammy says, opening a can of soda and passing it to RJ, "I'm not supposed to have this."

RJ takes it from him with a smile, "Thanks."

RJ clears his throat before he points at his blue golf bag, "Is that my bag?"

"Yeah, Rebekah brought it in here so you wouldn't have to sleep up in that old tree." Heather smiles brightly.

"Really?" RJ asks, a look of shock on his face as he looks over at me.

I give a small smile and nod.

"Wow…" RJ says, leaning back in his chair as he looks around at everyone.

"Hey RJ! Check this out!" Bucky says, "We totally hooked up the TV."

"I hotwired the HD converter." Quillo smiles.

"We get like a thousand channels!" Spike adds.

"Here, can you take the remote before my dad does?" Heather asks, passing RJ a remote.

"Wow…a universal remote." RJ says in a quiet voice before looking around at everyone, "This is nice guys. Really nice."

RJ switches on the TV and I take a seat on the arm of RJ's chair, arms crossed over my chest.

**"We now return to 'A Scoundrel Among Us'!"** **The announcer says on the TV.**

**A woman is looking over at a man on the screen, "You should be ashamed of yourself! We let you into our family and you decived us!"**

RJ reaches his arm out and changes the channel immediately.

**"I gave you my heart and you ripped it into a million pieces!" A man yells on the screen.**

The channel changes again.

**"Get real, Kevin, cause when you feel like a dirt bag, it's because you're a dirt bag, right? So, so, just own it. Just say it out loud." Dr. Phil says, "I am a dirt bag."**

I see RJ mouth the words along with Dr. Phil 'I am a dirt bag' out of the corner of my eye, a frown on his face. My brow furrows.

"Dirt bag?" Lou says, "I don't think that guy's a real doctor. What do you think, there, RJ?"

There is no response.

"RJ?" Lou asks, looking over. But to everyone's surprise he was gone.

They look around and I stand up, "I'll go see where he went."

I scamper off into the bushes and look around as I run.

"RJ?" I call, "You out here, dude?"

I hear a bag crinkling and look ahead on the path to see RJ hypervenalating into a bag before jumping up and mumbling to himself as he begins to walk away, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, RJ, you're getting in this way too deep!"

My brow furrows at I hear the words 'bear' and 'food' as his voice gets quieter.

Then suddenly I hear a scream, "Where's the food, where's the food, where's the food!?"

I run ahead immediately, "What's going….on." I trail off when I stand at RJ's side, looking straight through the empty log, not a trace of our food in sight.

* * *

_**(A/N: Sorry for the long wait but I was all wrapped up with exams but now I'm back! I should be getting back into the swing of things soon so there should be an update soon.**_

_**Rebekah: And don't forget to review!**_

_**Me: How did you even get in here?**_

_**Rebekah: I dunno...Where am I exactly?**_

_**Me: My bedroom.**_

_**Rebekah: Why is it so pink in here?**_

_**Me: *Picks up Rebekah and tosses her outside* It's not pink! It's salmon!**_


	7. What Do We Do now?

RJ looked flustered as he turned to me, "What happened? Where'd all the food go!?"

"I-I don't know!" I snap at him, running my paws through my hair, "Who could've done this? Who wasn't with us?"

RJ straightens up and mutters under his breath, "Verne…"

In an instant he has taken off towards the hedge and I blink, "RJ, where are you going?"

He looks over his shoulder as he runs, "I'm gonna go find the food! You wait here!" Then in a rustle of leaves he disappears through the hedge.

I sighed and plopped down onto the ground, staring into the log in disbelief, "I can't believe it's all gone…"

"What's all gone?" A voice asks from behind me.

I turn to see Heather standing behind me. My ears lay back and I shrink away from her, "U-Uh…"

"The food!" Heather exclaims, realising what had me so freaked out.

The sound of her yelling made the others rush over to see what was going on.

"Where's all the food, Rebekah?" Heather asks, starting to get scared.

"I-I don't know," I sputter, "RJ and I came out here to try and the food was just gone!"

"Well where's RJ now?" Penny urges.

"He went to see if he could find out where the food went," my eyes shoot from one person to another.

Then there is a large explosion from the other side of the hedge. We all get ridged and my fur stands on end like a cat that just had its tail stepped on.

There are then cracking noises from above us before Verne and RJ fall from the trees and land in front of me, followed by a red wagon and a blue cooler. Both of the objects were beaten up and burnt badly.

RJ got to his feet instantly, looking at the blue cooler in shock. I scurry over to his side and put a hand on his shoulder, "What happened?"

He looked at me with big eyes, completely shocked, "It's all gone…"

"Verne! You alright there?" Lou asks quickly as they all run over to help him up, "Give me a hand, Oz."

"Oh, sure, sure," Ozzy says, getting to his feet and rushing over to help Verne.

"What do you mean it's all gone?" I ask, feeling a tightness in my chest as I silently pleaded that he wasn't implying what I thought he was.

"What the heck happened?" Penny asks RJ.

"Yeah, what happened?" Spike asks.

"It's all gone! The food! Gone!" RJ drops to his knees and cries. I flinched back at his sudden outburst, my fears suddenly becoming a reality.

"What?" Heather exclaims.

"Gone?" Stella gapes, "How is it gone?"

"Ask," RJ snaps, pointing at Verne, "Him."

"Verne…?" Penny asks slowly. Everyone turning their attention to him.

"I returned it to its rightful owner," Verne says.

"What?!" Ozzy and Lou gasp, dropping Verne.

"We like worked our tails off, you know!? Like a lot! And the food we gathered was totally…you know!? And…and you're all whatever!" Heather turns away from him angrily.

"Yeah, Verne? What were you thinking?" Ozzy says, exasperated, "The log was full!"

Verne manages to get to his feet on his own, "Full of junk."

"So what are you saying? That food we gather _**our **_way isn't as good as the food we gather_** your**_ way?" Lou asks, hands on his hips.

"Your way?" Verne asks before pointing at RJ, "You mean _**his**_ way! Can't you see that RJ is just using you?"

I feel my conscious picking at me. I knew that something was up from the moment I saw him. Verne saw it too.

"Verne!" Penny gapes, "Shame on you! RJ wouldn't do that!"

My eyes slowly move over to RJ who had his back to the group. He spun the wheels on the cooler slowly with his finger.

"You have got to trust me on this! Don't you understand that there's something wrong with this guy?" Verne says, "My tail tingles every time I get near him!"

"RJ…?" I ask quietly.

He looks back at me slowly, his eyes staring at me. He looked afraid and somewhat ashamed, as if the words that Verne were saying we actually true.

"RJ…" I ask again, begging him to tell me what was going on.

"Oh, so we're supposed to go hungry because your butt's vibrating?" Stella asks in shock, "I'm starting to think that that tingle of yours is just you being jealous!"

"Jealous?" Verne scoffs, "Of him?"

"Yeah!" Lou yells, "He's embracing the future, there, and you're just holding us back!"

"Oh I hold you back alright," Verne yells, "from extinction!"

This grabs RJ's attention and we both turn to Verne.

"You see what you've done here?" Verne asks RJ, "If they listen to half the stuff that you're telling them, they'll be dead within a week!"

RJ cringes back from Verne.

"You're only taking advantage of them because they're too stupid and naive to know any better!" Verne yells.

The words slowly sink in and I stare at Verne in shock.

Verne looks around him and realisation sinks in.

I wasn't stupid. I was anything _**but **_stupid. But hearing those words from Verne, the guy that took me in last winter, made my heart sting. I was by no means a sensitive person but I had never been yelled at before. Not like this…

"I'm not stupid…" Hammy says, his eyes glassing over with tears.

"Okay, I didn't mean…" Verne says, trying to fix his mistake, "I meant ignorant."

The others still stared at him in shock and hurt.

"To the ways, over…over there," Verne points to the hedge.

"What's wrong with you…?" I mutter under my breath, staring at Verne in shock. These were his friends he was talking about.

Stella scoffs.

"Come on! You guys know I didn't mean it like that!" Verne says as they all begin to walk away, but Hammy RJ and I remained where we stood. Verne reached out to them, "Don't…don't do this! Stella…? Ozzy…? Hammy…? You know I didn't…Hammy." Verne reaches out to him but Hammy pushes him away instantly, turning away from him.

Hammy looked at the ground with sad eyes, "I'm not stupid…"

"Please…" Verne begged quietly.

Hammy grabbed RJ's hand and pulled RJ with him away from Verne.

RJ looks back at Verne one last time before RJ turns away, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and ushering me to come along with him.

I made one last glance in Verne's direction before turning away and hugging myself, leaning into RJ's protective hold.

When we all got back to RJ's new home we all lay down to go to sleep. The others all went off to their own little spot to sleep and I curled up on the welcome mat that sat in front of the TV. RJ sat down next to me and lay down, the triplets laying on his feet.

"Goodnight Uncle RJ…" Quillo yawned.

"Night, kiddo," RJ says slowly, looking up at the sky.

Normally I would have smiled at this but not tonight. Too many things had happened to make me feel happy. The only thing that could make me smile now was the thought of Jason…Wherever he may be…

"Goodnight Rebekah," RJ says quietly.

The image of Jason faded and was replaced with one of RJ smiling brightly at me. A smile tugged onto my face and I closed my eyes, "Goodnight RJ…"

* * *

_**A/N: Thank you for all of those fantastic reviews! **_

_**Clarabow3311! You get a cookie from knowing where I got the 'It's not Pink, it's salmon!' from. I just adore the movie Wreck-It Ralph! Turbo/King Candy is my favorite character.**_

_**Turbo: Yeah. She's one of my Fangirls.**_

_**Me: How did you even get in here? You're not even in this story!**_

_**Turbo: *Shrugs* The little fox let me in.**_

_**Rebekah: Hey Belle, this is my new friend. He's from a video game! Isn't that cool?**_

_**Me: *Facepalms* Both of you just get out…**_

_**Turbo: *Grins and lays back onto a chair* Naw, I'm just going to chill in here for the next few chapters.**_

_**Me: You can't do that! This is my story, not yours-!**_

_**Turbo: Have some candy! *Throws candy at me and knocks me out of my chair***_

_**Turbo: *Turns to face you* Hope you liked this chapter! **_

_**Rebekah: And be sure to review!**_

_**Me: *Sits up* You got pixie stick powder in my eyes!**_


	8. All My Fault

I stirred, blinking into the night, "Mm…RJ?"

No answer.

A sat up and looked around me, "RJ…?"

The spot next to me was empty. A felt an odd feeling in my chest and I jumped to my feet and carefully walked out of our sleeping quarters, tail dragging behind me.

"Yo, RJ? Are you out here?" I whispered, cupping my paws over my mouth as if it would make a difference, "Where are you-"

I stopped mid-sentence when I saw his striped tail poking out from the hedge. Slowly I walked over to his side and peered through the hedge to see what he was looking at.

My eyes widened. It was that man from the other day. The _**Verminator**_. Dwayne…

He stood in the middle of Gladys's yard.

Gladys looked over at him with a gleam in her eye, "Is it done?"

"Affirmative," Dwayne grinned, looking over the yard.

"And did you put this one in?" Gladys asked, shoving a flyer in his face, "This…'Depelter-Turbo'?"

"The what…?" I ask quietly, brow furrowing.

"Rebekah?" RJ asks in surprise, realising for the first time, that I was there.

"That's a contraband item, maim," Dwayne says hesitantly, "As it is illegal in every state…" He paused for a moment before adding proudly, "Except Texas."

"What's going on?" I ask him, looking from him the Gladys's yard.

"I don't care if this thing is against the Geneva Convections! I want it!" Gladys says angrily.

"They're setting up these traps…" RJ says, staring out at the yard in front of him.

"Traps? What kind of traps?" My eyes widened, fur standing on end.

Dwayne laughs, "I thought you might." He passes her a pair of sunglasses, "So I took the liberty of installing it for you."

He turned something on a small dial and pressed a button.

"Animal traps…inhumane ones…" RJ slowly answers.

"They're going to hurt us?" I glare at Dwayne and Gladys.

"Worse…" RJ's voice is nothing but a whisper.

I look over at him in shock, "What?!"

Suddenly red lasers cover the ground on the other side of the hedge.

"Adios animal infestation," Dwayne smiles, tossing a small teddy bear into Gladys's yard.

There was a bright flash and the teddy bear was roasted by the lasers and then trapped inside a cage.

"Oh…oh my," Gladys laughs, clearly proud with Dwayne's work.

My heart hammers in my chest as I stare at the teddy bear in shock, "This…this is your fault…"

RJ ducks back into the hedge and I follow him, popping out on the other side.

"It's your fault they're doing this, RJ!" I snap, repeatedly poking him in the chest with my paw, "They wouldn't have even_** needed**_ to call an exterminator if _**you**_ hadn't come into my life and messed everything up!"

RJ winced at each poke.

"_**You're**_ the reason we went over and started _**stealing**_ food. It's _**your **_fault this is happening to those animals!" My eyes suddenly widen and I turn to where the others slept, "The others…What will they do for food? They can't go back over there. Not now..."

"I know…" RJ says, rubbing his arm, "I know it's my fault and I feel awful…"

I turn back to him and scrunch my nose up, "Then what are you going to about it?"

"I…I don't know…" He states quietly, sitting down on a rock, staring at his feet.

My shoulders slouched and guilt washed over me. I know he probably deserved being yelled at but he sure looked guilty about it and I didn't want to make him feel worse than he already felt. I sighed and walked over, sitting next to him on the rock.

We sat there in silence for the longest time and then slowly I looked ovr at him, "Why?"

"Huh?" He asked, looking over at me.

"Why'd you do it?" I clarified, "We didn't need all that food right away. We could have spaced it out. The food would have went bad by the time winter came anyway…So…why'd you make them all get it at once?"

"I had a good reason…" He answered slowly but didn't say anything after that.

"You wanna tell me that reason?" I ask, trying to pry.

He just stared at the ground and grabbed something from under the rock. It was a paper, with images all over it. Then I recognised them as to be the things we had collected in the log.

My brow furrowed, "RJ…what…what is this?"

RJ shook his head and kept his eyes on the ground, "…I screwed up, Rebekah…"

I looked from the paper to him and decided not to ask any more questions.

Silence filled the clearing and his head fell into his paws. His sad voice echoed quietly through the clearing.

"What have I done…?"

* * *

_**A/N: Well hello there! I am so sorry I haven't updated in the longest time. I've been preparing some of my artwork for a gallery sort of thing at my school. I was so excited about it but that meant leaving my computer for a while to get some of my artwork together. So once again, I apologize.**_

_**Turbo: *crosses arms* You should be sorry. Leaving all of those people like that...For shame.**_

_**Me: Turbo, we've went over this. You have your own story now. You can go over there instead.**_

_**Turbo: No. I like it here better. It's Salmon-y in here.**_

_**Me: *points at Rebekah* Told you it was salmon!**_

_**Rebekah: I think you're both insane.**_

_**Me: Hey!**_

_**Turbo: Thank you!**_

_**Vern: *Pushes open bedroom door* What's going on in here? This isn't the forest...**_

_**Me: *Facepalm* Why does everyone feel the need to come into my room...?**_

_**Rebekah: *Jumps on my bed* Dance party!**_

_***Random lights flash out of no where and loud rave music is heard***_

_***Everyone randomly breaks out into dancing and about fifty other random people burst into the room***_

_**Turbo: *Turns to face you* Thanks for reading!**_

_**Rebekah: And don't forget to review!**_

_**Me: *Stares at everyone in shock*...What the fu-**_

_**Rebekah: Bye!**_


	9. Why Do I Fall For the Weird Ones?

I look over at RJ and sigh, pulling my knees up to my chest, "You know…you know you can tell me anything right? I don't judge."

RJ kept his gaze on the ground, "…I know."

I nodded once and turned back to face in front of me, "Okay…so if you ever need to talk to me about anything…you can just…yeah."

I could have sworn I heard RJ chuckle.

"Thanks…"

"So you wanna tell me what's been going on?" I ask, glancing over at him.

His ghost of a smile vanished, "Uh…"

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I add quickly, raising my paws up defensively.

RJ looked over at me, "I want to tell you…"

"Okay…Go ahead," I wave him on.

"Well…let's just start with Vincent…" RJ says, staring at his paws now.

"Vincent?" I ask.

"The bear," He clarifies, "I may or may not have gotten into a lot of trouble with Vincent…"

"You got into a fight with a bear!?" My eyes widened, "RJ, what did you do!?"

"Doesn't matter," RJ says quickly, "All that matters is that I needed that food to give Vincent. If I can't get him that food…" His voice trailed off into a whisper, "…I'm dead…"

I felt his story suddenly become real when I heard the fear in his voice. I felt the need to reach out to him but didn't know how. My eyes weakened and I slowly spoke, "We can get the food back…"

"How?" He asked, his voice sounding helpless.

"I don't know but we will," I say as if I was trying to convince the both of us, "You're going to be okay."

"No…I'm not…" RJ answers, "We can't get it back. I have to have the food to him by tonight and there's no way that's going to happen."

I reached out and hugged him, resting my chin on his shoulder, "Stop talking like that. We're going to get you that food and you're going to be fine. Nothing's going to happen to you, RJ."

He didn't say a word and then I heard him sigh.

RJ smiled slightly, "I don't think I've ever had a friend like you before."

My arms tightened around him, "Well I'm not going anywhere so get used to it."

I felt his arms wrap around me and he leaned his head against mine, "I'm tired of running…"

"Then don't run," I say, leaning back and place my paws on his shoulders, "You're going to be fine."

He looked at me like he was still unsure but he slowly nodded and smiled weakly, "Thanks."

I smiled back and gazed up at him.

"Shouldn't have taken that food."

The voice made both of us jump.

"What?" RJ asks, looking around.

"I shouldn't have taken all that food."

We look over to see Vern standing next to the charred wagon.

"I was just trying to return things to the way they were, that's all…" Verne says, slowly looking over at us, "I was just being cautious. Cause that's what I am…I'm naturally tentative. There's even places in my shell I haven't been."

I watch Vern, my ears dropping down in thought.

"_**You **_on the other hand," Vern gestures out to RJ, "You're like…cool and…crazy and…fearless…You know what? I think they're right. I think I'm just jealous."

"Jealous…?" I ask quietly. I don't know anyone in the whole planet that would want to be RJ right now.

RJ lets out a long sigh, looking over at me. I give a small nod towards Vern and RJ slowly turns over and looks at Vern, "Vern…believe me. You should not be jealous of me. You…you've got a good thing here. You're just doing what you think is best for your family."

I smile warmly. I think that was one of the most genuine things I have ever heard him say.

"And I think you're what's best for them now," Vern says, pointing at RJ.

RJ looks as though he was in deep though for a moment and then nods at Vern, "What about your tail?"

"Eh…" Vern waves him off, "My head says listen to my tail, my tail says listen to my head. And I just…I end up with an upset stomach…" Vern's eyes go to the ground and he hugs himself, "That's why you need to be in charge now."

"You don't really know what's going on here," RJ says, trying to convince Vern otherwise.

"And you do! So what's the problem?" Vern questions.

"This, Verne, is the problem. You see this?" RJ says, picking up the paper with the images of all the food on it.

"I'm listening," Verne says but now RJ seems preoccupied.

"Just…" RJ says but stands up and pushes the paper into Verne's hands, "Just hang on a second."

Then RJ dashes up a tree and looks over the hedge.

That's when I hear it. The beeping of a large truck.

I dart up the tree after him and when I get on the same branch as him I could see the trunk. It was a large white moving truck that was filled with boxes. A man jumped out of the truck and walked to the back as Gladys game out of her house.

"Hey, uh…you the lady throwing the party?" the man asks, placing a bunch of boxes onto a lift.

"Yes!" Gladys smiles at him, "Just to the right. There are protective booties for you to put on over your shoes.

"Yes!" RJ grins and I suddenly realised why he was so happy. In all of those boxes there was food. Lots and lots of food.

A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth, "You're going to be okay…"

"Uh…um," Vern mutters from behind us. We both turn and see him standing on the branch with the paper in his hands, "What is this?"

"What?" RJ asks, momentarily confused before his eyes widen, "Oh…um…"

"That is…a list," I say quickly.

"Of all of the stuff you lost, Vern," RJ adds, jumping to my side.

"Really?" Vern says, looking at the list.

"Yeah, it's a big long list, you can see that," RJ says.

"Well you're a little organised guy, aren't ya?" Vern says, gingerly looking from the list to RJ, "Nice job."

"But you know what? I know a place that is so chalked up with food that we could get it all back in one night," RJ grins, snatching back the list.

"Great," Vern says, looking around, "Let's go. Where is it?"

"Inside that house," RJ says, pointing at Gladys's house.

Vern leans over to look, wide eyed, "What?!"

But somehow he lost his footing and stumbled out of the tree. I reach out at the same moment RJ did and I grabbed one side of his shell while RJ grabbed the other. There was a suction-like sound and then a loud thud.

I looked down into the empty shell, "Huh…just slipped right out of there, didn't ya?"

RJ examines the shell and looks clear through it, "What is the point of this thing?"

"Just send it down…" Vern snaps, clearly unamused.

RJ rolls his eyes and tosses the shell down.

I go to climb out of the tree when RJ grabs my wrist, "Wait a second."

I turn to him, "What is it RJ?"

He smiled, "Thanks for not letting me give up on myself…"

My mouth turned up into a smile and I hugged him gently, "No problem RJ…"

RJ nuzzled his face into my fur and hugged me back.

We sat there for a moment and then I slowly leaned back, "We better go tell the others about the plan."

RJ's smile fell instantly.

I looked at him blandly, "You don't have a plan do you…?"

"Not exactly…" RJ says, rubbing the back of his neck, "But we'll think of it! Come on!" He turns and jumps down from the tree, racing off towards the others.

I smiled and stared after him, silently asking the night, "Why do I always fall for the weird ones…?"

* * *

_**A/N: Thank you to those she have been reviewing! It is greatly appreciated.**_

_**Turbo: Yep.**_

_**Me: Still here, huh?**_

_**Turbo: I told you I was going to be here for the next few chapters didn't I?**_

_**Me: ...I guess you did.**_

_**Turbo: And you know how I hate to lie.**_

_**Me: *Rolls eyes* Whatever you say.**_

_**Turbo: I think we need to throw another party.**_

_**Me: No! I just cleaned up from the last one!**_

_**Turbo: *Crosses arms and pouts* You're no fun...**_

_**Me: ...well?**_

_**Turbo: Well what?**_

_**Me: Aren't you gonna say it?**_

_**Turbo: Say what?**_

_**Me: The review thing you say every single time?**_

_**Turbo: No. You made me sad.**_

_**Me: *Rolls eyes* Well then I'll say it. Remember to-**_

_**Turbo: *Grabs my face and shoves me out of the way* Remember to review!**_

_**Me: *Gets up off the floor* I thought you said I made you sad!**_

_**Turbo: *Shrugs* I got over it.**_


	10. The Plan

When I got down from the tree I noticed a very cranky group of animals standing in the clearing. I get on all fours and run over to them before rising onto my hind legs and standing behind RJ and Verne.

"What Verne is trying to say is…I mean, it's hard to really sum it all up in just one word…but-" RJ tries to help but Verne hold his arms and out stop RJ from talking.

Verne looks at everyone and smiles weakly, "I'm sorry."

The others exchange looks and slowly smile over at him.

"Aw! Come here!" Hammy says running over and hugging Verne. The others follow behind him and hug.

RJ backs away a few steps awkwardly and rubs his arm.

I sidestep a bit closer and nudge him with my elbow, "Hey, RJ?"

"Hm?" He looks over at me.

I smile and nod towards the group, "You wanna get in on that?"

He rolls his eyes, "Thanks but no thanks."

"Aw, come on! You know you want to," I giggle, poking him in his side.

He chuckles and swats my hand away, "Stop it."

"Oh, someone's ticklish, huh?" I grin, raising my paws up.

"N-No, don't you dare!" RJ says in a sharp whisper but I am already poking at his sides. His little chuckles turn into laughter as he swats at my paws, "N-No! S-Stop! I…Ha! I can't breathe!"

"No way, I'm having too much fun," I grin, tickling his sides.

After a few moments he's on the ground, rolling around as he tries to pry my paws off him, "N-No! Please! S-Stop! Hahahaha!"

I giggle and pull my paws back, staring down at him with a curious expression on my face.

His giggles die down and he looks up at me, one ear up, one ear down.

I roll my eyes and nudge him with my foot, "You're so weird."

"I know," He grins and I help him to his feet. Then I noticed how close he was and my ears drop submissively as I felt his breath wash over my face.

Then I notice the others were staring at us and I clear my throat awkwardly, "So uh…everything's all good between you guys?"

"Yeah, we're all good here, eh," Lou says before looking over at RJ with a confused expression, "You feelin' alright there RJ? You're redder than a ripe tomato, there."

I look over at him and indeed his face was bright pink and it only darkened a few shades when Lou said about it.

RJ laughs nervously and waves everyone together, "N-Never mind that, uh, okay, stay in the huddle. Here's the plan."

We all stood around a replica of Gladys's backyard. RJ look a golf club and began pointing around the replica, "Okay the traps a set up here… here… here… here… here… here… here… here… here… here… here… here… and here…here…here…here…here…big one here…here…and maybe a few over here."

"Gee…is that all?" Stella chuckles.

"No," RJ says and I giggle, rolling my eyes. He gestures all around the yard, "There's a bunch of red lights all over here." He pauses a moment before adding, "Any questions?"

I nod toward the replica, "Yeah, how much free time did you have on your hands in order to build this?"

He glared and me before looking over at Verne, "You alright there Verne? You're lookin' a little green."

He stares blankly for a moment and then blinks as though he'd just come out of a trance, "I blacked out for a second there but I get the idea. There's lights, traps, I…might need to change my shell…" He cowers back from the replica.

"Okay…" RJ says, dumping a bunch of Monopoly pieces onto the replica, "This is us."

"Wait, so you had enough time to make the replica of Gladys's yard but not enough time to make clay models of us?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

He sent me another warning glance.

My mouth turns up into a crooked grin, "You know I'm just teasing."

"Can I be the car?" Hammy bursts out.

"I wanna be the car!" Quillo yells.

"I wanna be the car! You be the shoe!" Spike whines.

"The shoe is lame!" Quillo pouts.

"Why don't you be that snazzy looking iron, there?" Lou asks, pointing at the pieces.

"Hey! It's not important!" RJ says before grabbing the car piece, "Besides, I'm the car. I'm always the car."

I roll my eyes and laugh.

"Now the plan works in three simple steps," RJ says, waving his paws over the replica, "Stop one, kill the lights. Step two, get inside. Step three, get out with mountain of food."

"But this place is like a fortress, walls so high, doors impenetrable…how we gonna get in?" Ozzie says, cutting off RJ.

"The collar is the key," RJ says, whipping out a cell phone and pointing at a video with the cat from the other day on it.

Everyone stared at him in confusion including me.

"Literally," RJ says, rewinding and replaying the video, "The collar, it's like a key that opens the door and-"

"And what?" Stella asks, cutting him off, "You think he's just gonna hand over his collar to you?"

"Not to me my fem-fay-tal . To you," RJ says, pointing the phone towards Stella.

"Her?" Vern says, wide eyed.

"Me?" Stella asks, equally shocked.

"You Stella, will get that cat to give you his collar, by using," RJ starts but Stella cuts him off.

"My stink," She grins.

"Your feminine charms," RJ finishes, tilting her chin up with his paw.

Hammy bursts out laughing but quickly puts his paws over his mouth, "Was that out loud?"

"Look racoon, maybe that mask you're wearin' is obstructing your view, but if you haven't noticed…I'm a skunk," Stella says, holding up a CD to use as a mirror.

"On the outside, maybe! But I'm looking inside, Stella. And I see a fox, and all we gotta do is get her out," RJ says, looking into the CD with Stella.

"She's already out, and she's standin' over there," Stella says, pointing at me.

My ears prick up out of surprise, "Me?"

"We already got ourselves a fox so why make another one?" Stella asks, putting down the CD.

RJ hesitates but grins and rushes over to me, putting an arm around my shoulders, "Because we need Rebekah on the inside! She's knows a lot more about humans than a lot of us do so we could use her for her knowledge. She's the brains of the operation."

"Yeah, yeah, you don't want your girlfriend flirtin' with that puffball, why didn't you just come out and say it?" Stella rolls her eyes.

"Not my girlfriend." "Not his girlfriend." We speak at the same time.

"Whatever, just hurry up and make me a beauty queen before I change my mind," Stella mutters, walking over to join the others as they gathered up things that they may need.

I look over at RJ and smirk, "I'm the brains of the operation, am I?"

RJ glared at me and went to open his mouth to say some witty comeback.

"I'm kidding," I giggled, cutting him off.

"You know what? I think you're insaner than I am," He says.

"I don't think 'insaner' is a word," I say, tapping my paw on my chin.

"Sure it is. You know, like uh...it's when something is more insane than something else," RJ says, trying to elaborate.

"No, I'm certain it isn't a word," I say, giving him a crooked smile.

"It totally is," RJ says, looking at me as though I were stupid.

"…And in any case, you'd be insaner than me," I point out as we walk over towards the others.

"See! It is a word," RJ responds with a grin.

I roll my eyes, "Whatever you say."

I take a seat over by the triplets and watch them as they work on Stella. I noticed a small but constant beeping in the background.

"Scissors," RJ says, holding out a hand and Hammy hands him a pair of scissors and he begins cutting at her shite fur.

"Scissors?" Stella says, partly frightened, "Hey, watch the-"

"Charcoal," Penny says, putting her off.

Someone hands Penny a bucket of charcoal and she dumps it on Stella.

"Airfreshner," RJ says, grabbing some fre-breeze.

"Tomato juice," Ozzie says and Heather hands him a can.

"Cork," Verne says as someone hands him a large cork.

"Don't you dare!" Stella yells but Verne shoves the cork towards her.

I cover my eyes before I see anything that would mentally scar me for life.

Then the beeping I heard earlier quickened until it became a constant sound. I opened my eyes and for a moment I thought we lost her and then I looked over my shoulder to see the kids playing a video game, and by the looks on everyone else's faces I would say they were thinking the same thing.

RJ looks back to Stella, "One more thing…" He pulls out a white hair.

"Ow!" Stella snaps.

"Whoa, stop!" RJ raises his arms and grins, "That's it. Ladies and gentlemen…our work here is done."

I help Stella to her feet and stare at her in shock, "Wow…"

"Oh my…" Lou says, a smile on his face.

"Big jeepers," Penny smiles, clapping her hands together and holding them over her chest.

"She's all like…wow!" Heather grinned.

"What?" Stella asks, looking at herself.

RJ pulled out a mirror and Stella gasped at her reflection before grinning down at herself and wagging her tail, "Meow."

Everyone grinned at each other and started commenting on how beautiful she was.

Verne smiles at RJ with approval before going over to join the others.

RJ smiles at them and relaxes slightly.

"You did a good thing," I smile before turning my head and looking at him.

He smiles back but it falters.

"What?" I ask, giving his shoulder a squeeze.

"Thinking about what happens if this doesn't work," RJ mutters.

"Don't think like that. It's going to work," I say, a determined look on my face.

He gave a small nod and smiled before turning back to the others.

"Alright Gang, this is it," RJ says, walking over in the middle of the group of others with me at his side.

"We're going in," I say, clapping my hands together in excitement.

* * *

**_A/N: Hello! What's this? Another update? Why yes! Yes it is! I felt very on the ball today and decided to write up another chapter during Social Studies Class. (Sorry Mr. Sweetman but you really have to make your class more interesting) So here it is! The next chapter._**

**_Turbo: I should tell your teacher on you._**

**_Me: How can you? You're stuck in my computer._**

**_Turbo: I can E-mail myself to him._**

**_Me: Can you even do that?_**

**_Turbo: *Grins* Probably not._**

**_Me: That's what I thought._**

**_Turbo: *Turns to you* Remember to review! If you do, I may or may not give you some candy...maybe..._**

**_Rebekah: *Pops up out of nowhere* Bye!_**


	11. Coming Back For You

My blue collar glinted in the low light of the moon as I put it on. It was nearly concealed under my long red fur that I had grown over the winter to keep me warm. I brushed out my fur before turning away from the pond and scampering over towards the tree where RJ was sitting Hammy.

I looked over at the house as RJ readied the fishing line from up in the tree. From what I understood, Hammy was supposed to turn off the traps but with his one track mind I wasn't sure how he was supposed to really accomplish anything.

RJ swung the fishing pole and managed to snag the rain gutter on Gladys's house, pulling it taught before setting the rod in between two branches for the moment being.

"Okay Hammy-" RJ began, turning to talk to Hammy but he had already bounded past RJ and leapt onto the line and the rod whirled, and Hammy plummeted towards the traps. RJ panicked, grabbing the rod and wheeled the line back in quickly, "Hammy!"

The line straightened out and Hammy seemed to be unfazed.

And before I knew it, Hammy was quickly scurrying across the fishing line, safely over the traps that lie below. When Hammy reached the other side he unhooked the line and startled towards the piping going down the side of the house.

RJ ushered him on as he put away the fishing rod, "Go, go, go…"

Hammy was instantly distracted and darted towards a cookie that had gotten itself on the roof.

"No, no, no, no!" RJ grimaced and I bit my lip, hopping up onto the branch he was sitting on, "I told you that cookie is junk!"

"But I like the cookie," Hammy responded, hugging the cookie to his chest.

RJ looked frustrated, paws bunched up into balls, eyes narrowed at Hammy as if RJ focused enough Hammy would listen.

"What's going on up there?" Verne's voice came from below.

I peeked over the side of the branch at the same moment RJ did.

"Is everything okay up there?" Verne asks, the others already gathered behind him, ready for action.

RJ slapped a smile on his face and showed Verne an 'ok' sign with his fingers before popping back up onto the branch to figure out what he was to do with Hammy.

I rolled my eyes, sliding back down to the ground. I brushed off my red fur and looked over at Verne and the others.

"Care to share, Rebekah?" Verne asks, obviously not convinced.

"Hammy's not cooperating," I say with a shrug.

"That's nothing new," Verne says, hands on his hips.

"Haha! Here we go!" RJ yells in victory, holding up a laser pointer.

"Oh boy…" I laugh and gesture the others to follow me, "Come on. He's just about ready."

And right on cue, the lights in Gladys's yard go out.

"Okay! Step two," RJ grins, looking down at us from his branch.

"Okay, I thought we would be dead by step two so this is going great!" Verne smiles happily.

Everyone hurries through the hedge and into Gladys's back yard. We hurried behind a bush and RJ smiled at me, "I think this might actually work.

I bite my lip, "For your sake, I hope so…"

"Okay, Gorgeous, you're on," RJ shoves Stella out into the open, making her freeze.

"Man this better be one stupid cat…" I heard Stella mutter as she walks toward the ball of fur sitting on the window sill.

"Audio go," RJ says quickly.

Verne goes to pull the switch on the kiddy toy we found but as if spun it landed on cow instead of cat, making the toy 'moo' loudly.

Stella turned and glared at us.

I giggled, paws slapping over my mouth as the cat jumped up onto its feet.

Everyone began to panic and Verne looked over at us in surprise, "Maybe the cat likes cows?"

Penny slaps him upside the head.

I look back to see Stella hurrying over to the bush in fright but with a beep, the cat door opens and the Persian cat hops out, "Who goes there?"

"Oh boy," I tug on my ears, trying to cover my eyes.

"You're a cat!" RJ whispers harshly to her, "You're a cat!"

Stella whirls around to face the cat and grins, "You're a cat."

RJ and I face palm at the same time.

"I mean, 'I'm a cat!'" Stella grins nervously, "Meeooowww…?"

"Yeah, right," the cat says properly, "Shoo, go ahead. Go on. Get away from here. My owner does not give scraps to common strays."

"Common strays?" Stella says in shock, turning around to spray him, "You asked for it."

"Get the collar!" RJ snaps.

Stella whirls back around and smiles, "Gee that's a nice collar you got on. Mind if I have a look?" Stella walks closer to him.

The cat begins to panic, backing away from her, "No, no, no, no, Come no closer! I must not be near a creature of the outdoor woods!" The cat sneezes and wipes his nose, "Go now! Away with your filth!"

"My filth?" Stella says, hands on her hips.

Everyone gasps.

"My filth!?" Stella yells.

"Aw, jeepers, here we go…" Penny says, shrinking away from her.

"Okay, that's it! I am sick and tired of everybody taking one look at me and running away cause they think I'm filthy!" Stella snaps, getting up in his face, "Well I've got news for you. I didn't get all primped and preened to have some overfed pompous puffball tell me he's too good for me! I got make up on my butt, dude! And you don't wanna even know about the cork!"

Everyone is shocked into silence.

"Girl you represent!" I grinned and raised an arm.

"Stop that!" RJ chuckles, pulling my arm back down.

"Stop! No one has ever spoken to me like that!" The cat's ears fell flat against its head in anger.

Everyone shrinks back and Stella is frozen.

"It is bold…I like it," the cats grins at her.

Verne and RJ exchange glances.

Stella recomposes herself and walks with the cat away from us, "Well believe me, there's more where that came from." Stella usher us towards the cat door before adding, "Puff ball."

"Alright team. Let's boogie," RJ grins and the others rush towards the cat door with RJ and I trailing behind them.

"You think we can all actually pull this off?" I ask, looking over at him.

"Yeah…I think we actually might be able to do this," RJ says, looking up at the house as we all approach it.

"You know, I think this is the part where I blacked out," Verne says quickly, "Did the little shoes and cars actually get into the house?"

The collar comes flying towards us and it lassos around Verne's neck. The button the collar blinks twice and the cat door instantly opens and everyone hurries inside.

"Whoa…" RJ says, holds up his arms to stop the others.

Everyone begins gaping in amazement.

"The animals are in the house," RJ says before running up and opening both doors on the fridge.

"Alright. Stations everybody," I say, clapping my paws together.

The triplets dart off towards the living room while the others head towards the cupboards and closets. Hammy begins running but his claws make him slip across the tile flooring.

"No grip, no grip, no grip! Helllllppp meeeeh!" Hammy reaches out for us.

"Hammy!" RJ says, picking up the hamster before setting him back down, "Less claw, more pad."

"Oh, okay," Hammy says before running into a wall, "That hurt."

I roll my eyes and watch as the team grabbed saran-wrap and taped one end to the table before rolling the other end off the table. Heather caught it effortlessly and carried it over to the door.

"Uh oh…" Quillo says and I turn to see her sitting on the remote, paws over her mouth as a very loud noise fills the whole house.

"Quillo!" I snap, rushing towards her.

Then the sound stops and the image on the television changes to an image of Gladys sleeping.

"Okay. We're good," RJ says, brushing off his fur, "Let's get to work."

I snatch the remote from her and glare at her angrily, "Gimme that."

"Oops…" She smiles sheepishly before I rush back out into the kitchen, remote in hand as the others began sliding things down the saran-wrap slide and out the door, into the wagon.

"Yes! We're gonna make it," RJ turns to me and hugs me tightly.

I hugged him back and then something comes to mind. I lean back from him and frown, "What happens when all of this is over? What are you going to do?"

He looks at me and goes to open his mouth when there is a beeping noise and we all turn to see what it was.

"What is that?" Verne asks, raising an eyebrow at the coffee machine.

"That is what gets the humans out of bed in the morning," RJ says before it dawns on him and we all turn to look at the TV in shock.

"Where'd she go?" Spike says in shock, looking over at his siblings.

I look over to the stairway where Gladys is walking. Verne turns to the others, "Get down and stay down."

Everyone hurries to hide underneath or inside of something. The tall human comes into the room and walks over to the coffee machine, pouring herself a mug before turning to walk back upstairs.

When she is out of sight, Verne turns to us, "Hurry up! We gotta go before she gets back!"

"No!" RJ says sternly, "Not without those Spuddies!"

"What?" Verne says in shock.

"Lou, Penny, back to the TV," RJ says quickly, "Heather, keep an eye on that human."

"I'm on it, RJ," Heather smiles before running off towards the stairs.

"No, Heather, wait," Ozzie hurries after her.

RJ and I rush back towards the cupboard but with different intentions.

I entwine my fingers with each other, "RJ, this is a bad idea. Someone is going to get hurt."

"Without those Spuddies I'm dead, Rebekah," RJ says, pushing a stool over to the counter and climbing up on top of it.

"The wagon if full, come on, let's get out of here," Verne says, rushing over to us.

"Hold on Vincent, this will only take a second!" RJ snaps, turning to Verne.

"Vincent?" Verne asks.

"Where!?" RJ whirls around in fright.

"Who's Vincent?" Verne asks, climbing up the chair after RJ.

"Oh, Verne, Vincent, simple slip of the bear-TONGUE! Ah, uh, just bear with me, is what I meant to say…" RJ mumbles on, climbing up the bottle rack after the Spuddies, "There's no bear."

I turned to see the others gathering around in confusion.

My eyes snap back up to RJ, "RJ, you're freaking everyone out. Don't get yourself worked up."

"Come to Papa," RJ says, ignoring me and reaching for the Spuddies.

"We better hurry, we don't have much time, "Ozzie says, ushering us towards the door.

"What's going on RJ?" Verne says, pulling at RJ's tail.

"Nothing!" RJ says bit too quickly.

"Well then let's get out of here, because we have what we need!"

"No we don't!"

"What are you talking about? We have more than enough!" Verne says, pulling roughly on RJ's tail.

"Hey! Listen! I've got about this long to hand that wagon load of food over to a homicidal bear and if those Spuddies aren't on the menu than I will be! Now let go of my tail!" RJ yells at Verne's face.

My paws cover my mouth, "Oh no…"

"What…?" Verne says in shock.

"Let go!"

And that's when everything spun into chaos.

RJ kicks out of Verne's hold and reaches for the Spuddies but just as he does the whole bottle rack tilted and everything came falling to the floor.

I curled into a ball, arms over my head as bottles of wine and tonics came falling around me, smashing on the floor everywhere.

Gladys was in the room within seconds, screaming and

Stella burst into the room and looked back towards the cat door in remorse.

"Where are you going Stella?" The cat asked, hopping through the cat door as well.

"Look, Tiger, it's not you! It won't work! Because I'm a…a…"

Gladys took one look at her and her eyes widened, "SKUUUUUUUUNK!"

"Yeah, that," Stella says, unamused, "Sorry you have to see this." She turned and put her butt up in the air, "FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

"Stella no!" Verne yells but in an instant the whole house is filled with Stella's stink bomb.

I get up from my spot on the tiled floor in a haze, the scent clogging my nose and making my eyes fog up. My red fur soaked with red wine from the bottle rack and I managed to see the others on the other side of the room.

RJ stood clutching the can of Spuddies to his chest. He stared at the others for a moment before his eyes locked with mine and he ran from the house and out the cat door. I felt my heart shatter in my chest, my ears drooping.

"To the door! Go, go, go, go!" Verne yells and the others run towards it but Gladys was there in an instant.

I just lowered myself to the floor and sat there in the wine, eyes closed as I tried to bite back the tears that were welling in my eyes. Heavy footsteps filled my ears and I slowly opened my eyes, staring up at whoever it was. The verminator reached down and picked me up by the back of my neck. I didn't even try to fight back. My tail curled up around me as I stared at him, it didn't really matter what happened to me. No one cared about me. Jason left me. RJ left me. Even my own parents didn't want me. What good was an unwanted fox?

"No fight in you, huh?" Dwayne says, shaking me a bit and a jingling sound fills my ears. They perk up slightly, "What's this?"

My eyes widen. My collar. I forgotten I had been wearing it.

He holds up the silver dog tags that hung around my neck and reads them over before his eyes lock with mine, "Looks like someone is a long way from home."

I sat in a cage, eyes watching as Dwayne pitched the others into cages as well, stacking them in piles. He got down onto his knees and smirked at Verne, "You have just been verminated."

Gladys stalked up to the cages and Dwayne turned to her, chucking, "Whoo! You stink."

"That's because you let them into my…house!" Gladys broke down into hysterics.

"Hey Nancy, stop your honking! These little guys will be disposed of quickly and humanely," Dwayne says, tapping Verne's cage with his hand.

"No! NOT humanely! As inhumanely as possible!" Gladys yells, poking at Verne's cage before she walks away.

"It was a pleasure doing business with you Maim," Dwayne says before walking over to my cage.

I stare up at him and he pats the top of my cage, "Your owner will be here soon, little lady."

Right on cue, a red 2010 Camaro pulled up and Jason stepped out. My ears perked up and I began barking like crazy, "Jason! Jason, I'm here!"

Jason looked around urgently, "Rebekah?"

Dwayne walked up to Jason, "I found your fox, sir."

"Where is she?" Jason asks, looking around until he sees my cage and rushes over to me, opening the top of the box. I leap out into his arms, snuggling my face into his plaid shirt. His hands ruffled through my fur, "Oh Reb, I was looking for you all winter! Let's get you home, huh?"

I nod and smile up at him. I couldn't wait to get home and back into my warm bed and eat bacon. But as Jason began to carry me back to his car my ears pricked up and I looked over at the cages as Dwayne loaded them into his truck.

"What's he gonna do to us, Mama?" Bucky asks.

"I…I don't know, Baby…" Penny hugged the triplets close to her.

"I don't wanna die, Dad. Not for real…" Heather hugged Ozzie tightly.

"There, there, Sweetheart. We'll be okay," Ozzie pats her head.

"You were right about him, Verne," Lou says, "We should have listened. Sorry, there."

"No…I knew we couldn't trust him, and I got us into this…I should have known better."

My heart dropped, I had forgotten all about them. What would happen to them?

I barked, pushing away Jason's arms, "We gotta help them too! We can't just leave them, Jason!"

"Calm down, girl, we'll be home soon," Jason says, climbing into his car.

Then I realised that one of the things I didn't miss about him was the fact that he couldn't understand a word that I said. I stood up on my hind legs and looked out the window as we began driving away from Suburbia. My mind was racing, what would happen to Verne and the others? Where would they end up? Would they be relocated? Sold off? Killed? Panic tore through me and an idea pulled into my mind. I looked at Jason out of the corner of my eye and whimpered, scratching the window as the verminator van drove closer to our car.

"Need some air, Reb?" Jason asks before rolling down the window. Once it was down the whole way I put my paws up on the ledge and looked out at the verminator truck as it zoomed up closer to us. I readied myself and counter in my head, one…two…three! I pushed off with my hind legs and leapt out of the car towards the verminator van.

"Rebekah!" Jason yelled but I was already sailing towards the van.

But just as I was about to hit the windshield I landed on something. I looked up and my eyes locked with bright blue ones. My eyes widened, "RJ?"

Then the wagon of food smashed into the front of the verminator van.

"What the-!?" Dwayne yelled, slamming on the breaks, all the cages flying into the front of the cab, knocking the man unconscious. The van wheeled around and came to a stop in the idle of the road.

I sat up on the hood of the van, "RJ what are you doing here?"

"I came back for you, I-I thought you were in the van…" RJ says in shock, hopping onto the hood as well.

"My owner came back for me, But…But I couldn't just let them get killed," I looked down at the windshield as Verne hops up onto the dashboard.

"Looks like we had the same idea…" RJ says and takes my paw in his, "Well…you know they say two heads are better than one."

I turn to him and really smile for the first time in quite a long time. We both turn at the same time to see Verne smiling at us and we both smile back until Stella pushed Verne out the way and starts yelling at us, her voice muffled by the glass.

"Whoa! Stella! This is a rescue!" RJ yells as if it would make a difference, "We're rescuing you!"

Then Verne speaks up but his voice is muffled as well.

"What?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Hair?" RJ asks, pressing an ear against the glass.

Verne repeats it louder.

"Chair?" I ask.

"Mere?" RJ asks.

My eyes widen as I realise what he's trying to say, "RJ."

Verne repeats it again urgently.

"Oh! Bear!" RJ spins around and we jump in opposite directions as a bear tackles the front of the van. The scare made everyone inside the van jump, Verne falling backwards onto Dwayne's lap. The momentum must have cause Dwayne's foot to push down on the gas pedal.

Vincent slid over the top of the van and off the back while I slid across the side of the van, managing to grip onto the side mirror as the van swerved violently from one side of the road to the other until it suddenly straightened out. I looked inside and saw the triplets on the wheel, making me grin, "Whoever said video games don't teach you anything?"

"Verne!"

The shout made me jump, peering through the window and over to the other side where RJ was trying to get inside the van.

"Let me in!" RJ called urgently.

Verne began pressing buttons and the mirrors began turning back and forth.

"Wrong button! WRONG BUTTON!" RJ yells before hopping off the mirror he sat on, Vincent's paw smashing into the window.

RJ darted across the windshield and across the top of the van when the van made another violent u-turn.

I kicked at the window, "Hammy! Let me in!"

"Oh, hi Rebekah!" Hammy grinned as he rolled down the window and I slipped inside.

He immediately closes the window behind me just as RJ appears.

"Hammy! Roll the window back down!" He yells.

"Not listening to RJ, la la la la la la la la la la!" Hammy plugged his ears and jumped up and down.

"Kids! Lose that bear!" Verne yells.

"What weapons do we have?" Spike asks, looking over the dashboard.

"We've got a hammer!" Bucky says, pressing a button with a mallet on it.

"Cool!" Quillo grins.

A loud scream makes me turn as RJ jumps out of the way last minute as the mallet slashes the window. RJ leaps inside and the others catch him but they throw him right back out the other window.

"No, no, no, hey!" RJ yells, grabbing the mirror, "Let me in, let me in!"

"No! Ring-tailed charlatan!" Ozzie snaps, closing the window.

"Ozzie!" RJ yells

"He's just trying to help us!" Verne yells.

"Let him in!" I snap, rushing over to the window but Ozzie holds me back by placing a hand on my forehead, "Stop that, I have little arms!"

"After what he did to us?" Stella says before sending me a look, "I don't care if you two are dating or not!"

I turn to her instantly, "We're not-"

"But he came back!" Verne cuts me off.

"And he brought a bear!" Lou snaps.

Everyone begins shouting at once.

"Hey! No fighting while we're driving!" Bucky snaps at us.

"We will turn this van around mister!" Quillo yells.

Everyone goes silent for a moment before Lou points at Verne, "He started it."

"I'm telling you, he's just trying to help us," Verne says and I smile at him, "Really."

"But Verne, you're always the one that says, 'trust your tail'," Ozzie says as if it was obvious, still holing me back.

"But it's not tingling!" Verne says.

"OOoooohhh," Everyone smiles.

"Why didn't you say so?" Stella asks, ushering Ozzie to let me go.

Ozzie releases me at once.

"Hey!" RJ appears at the window. I instantly roll it down and RJ hops in, hugging me around my middle, "Thank you! Thank you!"

There is a grating metal noise and we all look up to see Vincent tearing the roof off the van. He raises a paw, "You're dead, RJ!" He swings his paw down and narrowly misses him as RJ pushes me behind him. Vincent's grin grows, "And your pretty little girlfriend is next."

My eyes widen as I stare up at Vincent until Lou jumps underneath him and all of Lou's quills dig into Vincent's nose.

_**Make an immediate left turn**_

"What is that?" I ask, looking around.

"GPS…?" Penny says.

"Ooooh look!" Bucky says, pointing at huge parade balloons, "Bonus points!"

The van plows through them, temporarily blinding us before the back doors of the van tear off, showing us that Vincent had somehow gotten himself tangled in the balloon strings and was being floated away.

Screaming brings us back to reality and we all turn to see the triplets heading straight for a speed monitor.

"High score!" Spike yells.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Verne yells but it was too late. The van was already up in the air and spinning upside-down towards Gladys's house and we landed roof down in her living room.

The GPS seemed happy, _**You have arrived.**_

Everyone quickly checked themselves over before rushing out of the overturned van, "Come on, we gotta go."

We rushed out the cat door and in moments we were back over on our side of the hedge.

"Penny? The kids here?" RJ asks, looking around.

"Yeah, we're all here," Penny says happily.

"Hammy?" RJ asks in confusion. We all turn to see Hammy staring up at the sky in fright.

"Scary clown," Hammy says.

I look up to see Vincent floating down toward us with a clown balloon. Landing in front of us before popping the balloon with one of the quills in his nose.

I grab RJ's paw and pull him towards the hedge, "Run!"

Then we all come to a halt when we run out the other side to see Dwayne stand in front of us with a tazer. The door of Gladys's house flies open to reveal Gladys as she starts up a weed hacker.

"A weed hacker, Verne! A weed hacker!" Hammy shouts.

My ears droop, "You have got to be kidding me…"


End file.
